Switch | Book Review

Book of the year (belated award).

Managers initially focus on strategy, culture, or systems,
which leads to miss the important issue – [that] the core of the
matter is always about changing the behavior of people. (p. 105)

Chip and Dan Heath’s 2010 work is a timeless guide for the manager struggling with individual or team performance. “Is this an ability issue or a motivation issue?” remains a useful root cause question. The Heaths reach a similar conclusion: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem (p. 3). Imagine the situation problem as a reflection of the motivational environment we create in a leader role.

Think of our Energize2Lead (E2L) instinctive needs, or things that make us feel safe, secure, energizing our core. Successful changes share a common pattern. They require the leader of the change to do three things at once: You’ve got to influence not only their environment but their hearts and minds (p. 5). So, we need to go further than just addressing the climate we create. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt says that our emotional side is an Elephant, and our rational side is its Rider (p. 7).

This model forms the three sections of the book, Direct the Rider, Motivate the Elephant, and Shape the Path. The authors diagram this model on page 259, suitable as a useful poster.

Direct The Rider

In the age of the World Wide Web, infinite data and information are ubiquitous. Our first instinct, in most change situations, is to offer up data to people’s Riders: Here’s why we need to change. Here are the tables and charts that prove it (p. 81). It’s a natural and very appealing approach, especially for the technically oriented. Making things worse, we seem wired to focus on the negative (p. 46).

What to do? The more successful change transformations were more likely to set behavioral goals (p. 62). Recall Kouzes and Posner advise us first to Model the Way, allowing the rational rider glimpses of the desired behavior. The Heaths found that solutions-focused therapists learn to focus their patients on the first hints of the miracle – “What’s the first small sign you’d see that would make you think the problem was gone?” (p. 37). We can do the same in a coaching role, challenging others to provide an incremental first goal. We want what we might call a destination postcard (p. 76), a terrific leadership toolbox addition.  Imagine having a destination postcard as an opening “Where are you taking us?” statement in a Personal Leadership Philosophy. This sets up well for goal alignment or marrying your long-term goal with short-term critical moves (p. 93).

Motivate the Elephant

Kotter and Cohen say that most change happens in this order: ANALYZE-THINK-CHANGE (p. 106), rather than SEE-FEEL-CHANGE. Elephants aren’t motivated by data and charts.  It’s emotion that motivates the Elephant (p. 118).

Further, James March says that when people make choices, they tend to rely on one of two basic models of decision making: the consequences model or the identity model (p. 153). Let’s think of the consequences or compliance model as the domain of the manager and the identity model as the domain of the leader.

Remember the destination postcard. An effective leader should continually refer to the postcard, or future vision of the organization. In the identity model, we essentially ask ourselves three questions when we have a decision to make: Who am I? What kind of situation is this? What would someone like me do in this situation? (p. 153). This approach may allow the typical technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) an Aha Moment – now motivated by an identity greater than self. Consider the opposite. Any change effort that violates someone’s identity is likely doomed to failure (p. 154).

Shape the Path

Let’s return to the leader’s role in creating a motivational environment. Years of coaching worldwide suggest ability issues are far less common than motivation or instinctive needs issues. The Heaths go further: What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem (p. 192). In one study of people making changes in their lives, 36 percent of the successful changes were associated with a move to a new location, and only 13 percent of unsuccessful changes involved a move (p. 208).

With many just returning to the office post-Covid, an opportunity has emerged. Since people are incredibly sensitive to the environment and the culture (p. 206), we should ask how we may change our workplace beforehand. A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people.” (p. 220). One effective idea is an “action trigger,” or making the decision to execute a certain positive action when encountering a certain situational trigger. Imagine having daily or weekly meetings highlighting progress toward behavioral goals and the team destination postcard. As the change leader, you have to pay close attention to social signals, because they can either guarantee a change effort or doom it (p. 228). Look for the influencers and support them. If you want to change the culture of your organizations, you’ve got to get the reformers together. They need a free space. They need time to coordinate outside the gaze of the resisters (p. 247).

Summary

Alignment is an essential leader activity. In other words,

When change works, it’s because the Rider, the Elephant,
and the Path are all aligned in support of the switch (p. 255).

Seven clinics in the three sections additionally serve as relevant case studies implementing an effective switch. “Next Steps” resources at the end of the book including podcasts may be found at heathbrothers.com.